PTSD
by Mustard Lady
Summary: Cisco had moved on with his life, and had gradually accepted Earth-2 Harry Wells as part of the team, accepting that he wasn't like the first Wells after all. But his untimely, terrifying death experience with Eobard Thawne from the other time-line has left him scarred for life, and Cisco still suffers traumatizing flashback nightmares!


**Yes! I'm excited to do another Cisco fic! In case you haven't noticed, he's my top favorite character. This takes place in the middle of Season 2. I don't own The Flash. Reviews are welcome.**

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 **Cisco had moved on with his life, and accepted Harry as part of the team. But his terrifying death from Thawne has left him scarred for life and he is still plagued by traumatizing flashbacks.**

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There was a blinding white light blanketing... _everything!_ There was nothing to see at all! "Wait? What is going on here?" Cisco asked nobody. "Am I, in heaven?"

Then the white light faded and morphed into a large room with dark walls and a tile floor. There were various kinds of tech and gadgets around. This room seemed familiar. "Wait! This...this is the bunker." Cisco furrowed in confusion. _Then,_ his eyes fell on it: the containment system with the super capacitors! "Wha-wait, no. Why am I in here, _again?"_ Cisco gulped hard. He started sweating and his body felt so cold. "Okay, guys. 'Cause this is _mad freaky!"_ He saw the machine to turn on the containment filter. He was tempted to turn it on, yet terrified to even try! The last time he did, he'd been killed by his friend and mentor!

"This is so creepy weird! _What_ is going on?" Cisco shuddered. "I shouldn't be dreaming this, again." He turned on the charge box for the containment filter. It came to life with a force-field, and...inside the force field was the Reverse Flash hologram!

Cisco gulped. His heart started racing like Barry's super speed. And he was pretty sure it matched Barry's speed perfectly too! "No. No. We already did this. It _**CAN'T**_ be happening again! Why are we going over this again?!" Cisco asked himself. "No, no, no...This happened already, I am NOT going through it again!" He wagged his head back and forth on his pillow, trying to shake off this bad dream.

" _Hello, Cisco."_ Came the dreaded, eerie voice of doom! Cisco shuddered with terror. He felt as if he was trapped in a dark room underground with no windows and the door above him sealed tight. The bunker felt smaller and smaller. Wells/Thawne was standing behind him, grinning creepily.

"Oh, no! He's here! No, no, no, no! Not again! Oh, please God! No! How can this be happening? Guys? Wake me up, please!" Cisco cried out in his dream. But there was no one to wake him up. He was stuck in his dream.

" _My name is Eobard Thawne."_ Wells/Thawne said formally.

"No. Let me out!" Cisco begged. But his dream self didn't speak those words. Wells/Thawne clapped his hands in mockery as he stealthily approached his young former protege.

" _You're incredibly clever, Cisco. I've always said it."_ He chuckled.

" _You're him! The Reverse Flash."_ Dream Cisco groaned hurtfully. _"You killed Nora Allen...fifteen years ago, in Barry's house! It was you!"_

Wells/Thawne nodded as he closed the laptop. _"_ _If it makes you feel any better, Cisco, you'll be glad to know that i_ _t was never my intention to kill Nora. I was there to kill Barry."_

"Stop! Just shut up!" Cisco screeched. "Somebody let me out!"

" _But...why?! You're his friend!"_ Dream Cisco sputtered in disbelief.

" _I've been teaching him to go faster, I know."_ Wells/Thawne finished for him. _"Just a means to an end, because I have been stuck here for fifteen long years. And the Flash's speed is the key to me returning to my home. You understand, don't you, Cisco?" _He turned and looked slyly at Cisco. _"Then you understand what must be done."_ He nodded, his voice becoming a barely audible whisper.

Cisco trembled severely. His mouth was dry and his chest was tightening. He struggled to find his voice in the dark. "I gotta wake up! Somebody, wake me up, please! No...no...NO-" Why weren't they listening to him? Why were his friends he counted on ignoring his desperate pleas for help? "Guys, _please!"_ Cisco shrieked. "Please help me!"

" _I can help you."_ Dream Cisco suggested pleadingly. _"We can figure this out, together, same as always. And I can find a way to send you back to your time. You know I can do it!"_

Wells/Thawne tsked with a shake of the head. _"_ _Oh, you're smart, Cisco."_ He snickered.

"No, no, no, no!" Cisco gasped hard.

" _But you're not that smart."_ Wells/Thawne said coldly, lifting his arm and right hand began vibrating.

Cisco felt paralyzed. He was hyperventilating. He wanted to run, but it was like his body was glued to the air he breathed. "NO! His hand-" Cisco choked in a strangled voice. "Guys, get me out...PLEASE!" He had to get out of this nightmare, but no one was bothering to help him! "Someone get me out! HE'S GONNA KILL ME!"

Dream Cisco began backing away fearfully, and Wells/Thawne calmly approached him, matching his every step. _"I've grown quite fond of you, Cisco."_ He whispered in a husky voice.

"No! Guys-" Cisco shrieked, terrified. His blood ran cold as ice.

" _And in many ways, you've shown me what it's like…"_ Wells/Thawne continued to chant, his scary hand inching closer and closer to Dream Cisco's face!

"NNOOO!" Cisco screamed.

" _...to have a son."_ Wells/Thawne smiled sickeningly. Dream Cisco flinched as he realized in mortification that he'd let himself become backed up against a wall! There was no escape now!

" _Please...don't..."_ Dream Cisco whimpered helplessly.

"Gaaahhh! Help me! Help me, please!" Cisco begged desperately.

Wells/Thawne giggled cruelly, towering over Dream Cisco. _"Forgive me,"_ he shook his head with a manic gleam in his grin and hideous streak in the pupils of his eyes, " _but to me you've been dead for centuries._ _Goodbye, Cisco._ _"_ He thrust his hand into Cisco's heart.

"HELP ME!" Cisco cried at the top of his lungs, which felt as if they were being sucked out of him. "NNOOOO-"-

 _ **Ka-thwump!**_ The back of Cisco's head touched something hard. Cisco's frantic eyes popped open. It was dark. He whimpered, petrified, his eyes wildly darting back and forth, searching for his killer whom he'd thought had been standing over him just a few seconds ago! "Oh g-," He tried to breathe. "Oh my g-. Oh my g-." He stammered anxiously. It was at that moment that his eyes found his hands, and he just then realized how badly his palms were shaking.

He bolted upright, sitting up. "W-w-where am I?" He panted, still trembling and his heart beat still racing over drive.

Cisco clung to his mattress and used it to heave himself back onto the bed. He instantly flipped on his overhead bed post lamp. He was in his apartment. There was no one here. NO one here but himself! Cisco flopped his head back down and clutched his chest, which felt constricted. He was cold, from the profuse perspiration running down his back. "Oh g-! Oh, that felt so real." He cried with tears.

This wasn't the first time. Each time it happened, he hoped it'd be the last, but it never was! Even though it had been nearly a year since the Reverse Flash had revealed his identity and been defeated by Barry, Cisco _still_ experienced these traumatic night terrors, sometimes even when it wasn't night! Every time it snuck up on him, he couldn't suppress it to keep the chilling memory at bay, but it would run into his mind head on. And every time he woke up, he felt like he was dying and it scared the heck out of him! At first he'd kept it to himself, but as he gradually continued to have the nightmares, he spoke to Caitlin, hoping she could help get rid of them. While that was out of the question, she had coached him through one of his attacks, repeating the calming steps over and over again, till Cisco was able to remind himself to do them if he was alone and suffered a flashback. And that's what he was struggling to do now. It always frightened him more and he found it most difficult to do at night when he was alone at home and was aroused from sleep, trying to wake from a bad dream.

"You're okay...he's not here..." Cisco tried to speak, trying to follow the steps Caitlin had given him for episodes like this. "But, oh g-. Oh man! That, that felt...I thought it was real!" He wept. He finally felt safe enough to remove one of his hands from his pounding heart and wipe his eyes. He hated being alone when this happened. He longed for Caitlin to be here at his side, holding his hand, and speaking soothingly to him through the mess in that gentle, kind, sisterly doctor way he loved her so much for. It sure would take the edge off a few degrees! He thought of texting her, but it was very late.

"Thanks, Caitlin." He whispered, as the guidelines she'd coached him through before were beginning to take effect and he wasn't trembling so badly now. The tremors were less agitating, and he found himself able to breathe again!

The Reverse Flash/Thawne/Dr. Harrison Wells had cruelly killed him when Cisco had found out the truth about who he really was. Then Barry had erased the time-line so Cisco survived! But he'd vibed that death so vividly. Then they'd set a trap for Thawne, making Cisco relive the frightening scene, which Thawne botched and rubbed it in their noses. Cisco would _never_ forget that moment as long as he lived-when Thawne had looked him deeply in the face and told him that he'd thought of him as a son then shoved his fist into his chest and the red hot lightning mingled with the elephant impact of the clenched hand had made his heart give out!

Barry had said that he could toss Thawne into the future three centuries and he'd still be part of Barry's life, after all the hurt he'd caused. It was just as true for Cisco. He'd also been suffered horribly by Thawne, and Cisco would carry that burden, that memory, that scar with him the rest of his life, no matter what time-line he ended up in!

But, thankfully, he had the best friends in the world who understood that, and they would always try to help him or offer comfort when they saw that he needed it!


End file.
